As the Chinese coronavirus spreads rapidly around the globe, governments worldwide are making a show of doing something. But are their measures effective, or just exercises in population control?

On Wednesday, the World Health Organization may declare an international public health emergency. Whether or not they do this will greatly affect the response of both the Chinese government and others in dealing with the outbreak of the 2019-nCoV virus that has already infected hundreds and killed nine.

Person-to-person transmission

Prior to Monday, the only known cases of the virus were all from people who had been in Wuhan — suggesting they all caught it at the illegal wildlife market thought to be ground zero for the plague. As the virus has an animal origin, it was hoped at first that it could only jump from the animal source to humans.

But now we know the virus can be transmitted from person to person, things look much bleaker. In the last few days the virus has spread to Taiwan, and there has been one confirmed case in Seattle, USA. Screening efforts are to be stepped up by Australia, Russia and the UK for passengers arriving from Wuhan. One man in Australia has been quarantined.

The airport checks so far seem to be simple temperature tests, as one of the symptoms of the virus is fever. This is hardly a sure-fire way of stopping a single microscopic particle from entering a country. If governments were really serious, surely they would be cancelling flights from Wuhan's international airport by now. But perhaps they are waiting for the Chinese to act first, so as not to be seen as hauling up the lifeboats.

Martial law coming to Wuhan?

China's National Health Commission Vice-Minister Li Bin has told people not to enter or exit the city of Wuhan, but this means little unless it is enforced. Reportage from Wuhan itself has been scarce, so it is difficult to gauge the mood on the ground there. Are people panicking and trying to leave? So far there have been no reports to that effect, or of military intervention in Wuhan. But the Chinese government will be considering all options as they seek to control the situation.

And they will not hold back. In 2009, an outbreak of flu saw schoolchildren with high temperatures sent home, and passengers entering the country put into quarantine for up to a week if they had flu-like symptoms. For 2019-nCoV, now is the most critical stage for prevention and control, before cases of the virus exponentially increase, but it could be that the Chinese believe that the virus is already beyond their control.

Mr Li has had to admit the virus is contagious by respiratory tract — in other words, coughs and sneezes. This is the easiest way for a virus to spread, and there is practically nothing that can be done to slow or stop it. Hand sanitizers and facemasks will never be ubiquitous, and in any case, do they even work? A 2012 study showed that, while washing your hands is effective against the flu virus, merely wearing a face mask did not make a statistically significant difference to rates of infection.

As if to prove this, at least 15 medical workers in Wuhan are now infected. These people would have been taking every precaution, swaddled in quarantine gear and face masks, implying that the virus is easily making the jump from person to person.

Is there anything that does work?

Hopefully we will never know what it takes to stop a highly contagious and deadly disease from spreading throughout the world. It could look like the Hollywood science fiction movies about such things — soldiers patrolling the streets with cities on lockdown, medical services stretched beyond breaking point, and sick people unable to access the few available doctors. Unless such a plague emerges, it is probably not even worth restricting travel or screening passengers at airports.

Such measures have more to do with hope than with reality, and perhaps with people's perceptions. Modern people want to feel as if they have control over every situation, or that there are some measures the government can take to protect them. But in truth, beyond personal precautions like washing your hands and cooking meat thoroughly, if you become infected you have only your immune system to save you. So the schools will continue to be shut, the soldiers rolled out and the gas masks distributed. But this particular enemy cannot be shot at, locked up or bargained with. Meanwhile, shares in Chinese face mask manufacturers have risen by 10%.

Peter Andrews is an Irish science journalist and writer, based in London. He has a background in the life sciences, and graduated from the University of Glasgow with a degree in Genetics

The deadly pneumonia-like illness that has sickened hundreds and killed nine in and near Wuhan, China has turned up in the US, despite precautions, as China's neighbors ratchet up screening efforts to prevent a global pandemic.

A Snohomish County, Washington man has become the first officially confirmed novel coronavirus case in the US. Local officials have not named the man, who is said to be very sick. He was hospitalized with pneumonia last week after returning from the Wuhan region, where the illness has already claimed nine lives, according to Chinese authorities.

It's not immediately clear how many other Americans may have been exposed to the disease, which is believed to have its origins in a seafood and poultry market in the city of Wuhan, home to 11 million people.

Over 440 cases had been confirmed by Wednesday in China, cropping up in cities including Beijing, Shenzhen and Shanghai; cases have also been reported in Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and - now - the US. Infectious disease experts from Imperial College London estimated the disease toll to be much higher, however, suggesting on Saturday that at least 1,723 people might be infected.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention set up screening points at airports in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York on Friday in hopes of catching coronavirus carriers before they made it into the country, but they were apparently too late - or too far south - for US Patient Zero. While the CDC has claimed the threat to Americans is low, it also claims to be taking "proactive preparedness precautions."

Russian airports in Moscow, Ekaterinburg and Irkutsk stepped up screening of travelers arriving from China to try to identify infected people on Tuesday, after it became clear the virus is able to spread from human to human. India has also expanded thermal screening of passengers arriving from China, including Hong Kong, to seven airports, among them Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Cochin, in addition to New Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata.

The sole South Korean airport operating direct flights to Wuhan set up special gates for passengers back on January 3, while Singapore also expanded travelers' temperature screenings at Changi airport. Malaysia beefed up its own evaluations at the major airport in Kuala Lumpur, and the Bangladesh aviation watchdog also ordered screenings for travelers from China to look for any signs of the illness. Australian health officials, meanwhile, are distributing pamphlets and asking everyone coming from Wuhan to identify themselves if they feel any symptoms.

It's not entirely clear how easily the virus - which causes pneumonia-like symptoms including fever, cough, shortness of breath, and chest tightness - spreads from person to person, or what predisposes a person to contracting (or dying from) it, but authorities believe it initially jumped from animals at the Wuhan market to humans. The World Health Organization is due to weigh in on Wednesday on whether the outbreak will be declared an international public health emergency.

The virus is feared to be adapting too fast for China to deal with. It has asked for help from WHO:

The virus seems to be adapting and mutating, according to the head of China's Disease Control Center, Gao Fu, who noted though that, so far, all of its changes have been in line with expectations.

There may now be up to 2,197 cases of "close contact" with confirmed carriers, though another Health Commission official said he has yet to see evidence for "super spreaders" of the illness, or highly contagious patients, adding that "relevant measures" were being taken in the event such patients arise.

The abrupt increase in confirmed cases comes with improvements in methods of detection, the vice minister said, but the government has nonetheless warned the public to avoid densely populated areas nationwide. Meanwhile, officials in both Wuhan and the city of Hubei have been asked to take the "strictest possible measures" to minimize public gatherings, while residents of both cities were requested to refrain from traveling.

The Health Commission said it will continue to publicize new cases daily throughout China's lunar New Year as researchers work to track the source of the illness and create a vaccine, adding it is now in its "most critical" stage for prevention and control.

What is the real likelihood of contracting it and dying? We keep hearing of these deadly viruses every other year, coming out of hell knows what malnourished, impoverished and otherwise breeding ground, kills a bunch of people, and then it fizzles.

Is this a virus that has a greater infection rate on Chinese and Indochinese than other races?

China has a population of 1.5 billion people out of the population according to a report on Sputnick

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The outbreak is believed to have begun in Wuhan some time between December 12 and December 29. Since then, there have been at least 548 cases of the virus across China, and 17 people have died there as a result. Some coronavirus cases have also been registered in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, Japan, South Korea, the United States and Macau, although no deaths have been reported outside of China.

Can this really be considered an epidemic, with such high population numbers. Is it just scaremongering, it is recognized as a pneumonia type illness, it would be interesting to know if those deaths were attributable to age, young and old or immune compromised individuals.

"There's a story that people eating raw bat offal in China could be part of the cause of this virus spreading. And there's also a claim by Chinese scientists that snakes could be behind it too. But there are pictures of people putting a dead, uncooked bat into a bowl of soup and eating the soup. I really don't understand how anyone could think to eat a raw bat..."